Hurricane Sandy - Glass Half Full and Lessons Learned.
Turning lemon into lemonade 
I thought Hurricane Sandy would be another media overblown average type event. But it was much worse than I expected it to be.

Hundreds of cars with blown out windows and flooded interior in my Brighton Beach neighborhood in Brooklyn (mandatory evacuation zone A). I did not evacuate, just stocked up on emergency supplies. Residential buildings had no water and electricity. I live on 21st floor and had to take stairs every time, to get in and out of the building.

I could not travel to my Acupuncture office on Union Square, New York City and see my patients, was losing income and had a lot of time on my hands.

I was looking for a learning experience from the event and I found many.  To make lemonade out of hurricane Sandy, I focused on non-attachments ( as its is a main theme in all Eastern philosophies. As a practicing Yogi and Acupuncturist of many years, that seemed appropriate).

Going up the 21 flights of stairs became my "StairMaster" and I found out that on a good day, I can go all the way up without pausing and that was a good thing for my fitness levels.

My old car was toast and that could be good news, since I did not use it for months and was debating if I even need it since, the trains in NYC gotten pretty good.

Electricity robbed me of  TV and that gave me lots of time on my hands to spend time with my wife and to come up with lots of creative ways for entertainment. I read from my iPad, exchanged massage and practiced Tango under candlelight.

I also spent a lot of time outdoors jogging and exercising and found creative ways to wash myself without running water.  I would go to one of the very few buildings with electricity intact to charge my cellphone and my iPad. When the lights came up and we had electricity, I was happy.

Next came the water, only cold though. Cold showers in the morning were chilling, but afterwards I felt invigorated and happy and afterall, better than no water at all.

One thing I was missing was my Acupuncture needles to turn the whole Sandy hurricane ordeal into a more spa like situation as I did on my last vacation in Mexico.
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The next day, triple delight and Nirvana, hot water, elevators and TV all working. Netflix and CNN, here I come! Time off from work I turned into a one star (*) vacation.

What I learned from this hurricane is how little we need to be happy and how quickly it is not enough. Focusing on simple things in life brings us happiness. Wanting more and more sets us up for disappointments.

What have you learned ? Leave a comment or share my story.

Mark Moschchinsky.